Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming
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"Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The title is a reference to the 1977 film Twilight's Last Gleaming.
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[edit] Synopsis
Krusty the Clown begins another episode of his show on a serious note ... he thanks the children for their contributions to a food drive.
But are the cans and boxes of vegetable soup, fruit cocktail, refried beans and macaroni going to feed needy families? Of course not! They're going to be used for a super-sloppy obstacle course competition (a la Double Dare). Bart and Lisa, as usual, revel in the mayhem and Krusty's abuse of Sideshow Mel.
The prisoners at Springwood Minimum Security Prison are also laughing at the proceedings, causing Sideshow Bob to lose his concentration while building a model of Westminster Abbey inside a bottle and ruin his project.
He enters the nearby room where the other inmates were laughing at the inane antics of Krusty. After the other inmates remind Sideshow Bob he used to be Krusty's sidekick, the embittered ex-TV star begins to defame other 'trash TV' shows, all of which he pans as pointless, mindless drivel, until Rupert Murdoch steps in to end Bob's attack on TV claiming "I own 60% of that network!", which is presumably the Fox network. While on work duty at a local airfield (which is being cleaned for an annual air show), the quality of television programming eats at Bob's mind, and he forms a plan ...
Meanwhile, everyone in town (including the Simpson family) goes to the air show, where the usual antics occur. At the same time, Bob – impersonating an Air Force colonel – gains access into the restricted area of a hangar, where he finds a 10-megaton nuclear weapon. He then finalizes his plans ...
Col. Hapablap tries to begin the show, but the signal on a giant-screen television is lost and just as quickly restored on Sideshow Bob. Bob suggests life would be better without television, and then makes his demand: Abolish television within two hours, or he'll detonate the nuclear bomb. Everyone flees the airfield in panic (Squeaky Voiced Teen: "Stamp your hand for reentry!" but everyone ignores him); Bart and Lisa are separated from their parents.
While National Guardsmen frantically search the base for Sideshow Bob, Mayor Quimby and Col. Hapablab meet to decide what to do. When Bob is nowhere to be found, Quimby (out of options and running out of time) decides to give in to Bob's ultimatum, despite Krusty's (self-interest motivated) insistence that in a world without television, "the survivors would envy the dead!". Television transmitters are destroyed, and television stations hastily plan farewell programs. Kent Brockman gives a farewell speech, toasting all the good times he's shared with viewers.
As Bob (whom, we learn, was televising his demands from a stolen Duff Blimp) gleefully celebrates the success of his plan (whilst rueing the fact that he didn't make more demands, including one for some "decent local marmalade"), Krusty is determined not to give in to his former co-star's demands (if he can stay on the air, he'd have 100% of the audience). He takes refuge in a civil defense shed and, after turning on the transmitter, heavily improvises a show including The Stingy and Battery Show. Bob finds out and is outraged - even the threat of nuclear destruction is no match for television.
Bart and Lisa find their way into the cockpit of the Duff Blimp, where Bob – having lost his patience – tries to detonate the bomb. However, the bomb is a dud and no damage is done.
But at least Bob can gain some satisfaction ... by taking Bart hostage and, after landing the blimp, putting a knife against his neck. Lisa manages to sneak away and creates a message announcing Bob's whereabouts. When Chief Wiggum tries to arrest Bob, he just laughs at him and takes his 10-year-old hostage to a hangar, where he steals the original Wright Brothers aircraft (which had been an exhibit at the air show).
Bob, holding the knife's blade to Bart's neck, plans a kamikaze mission by crashing the plane into the civil defense shed where Krusty is hiding. He flies towards Krusty's shed, humorously yelling "DIE KRUSTY DIE!!". However, the plane is mechanically unable to carry out Bob's kamikaze mission, and it merely bounces (harmlessly) off the shack's roof. The plane lands and stalls, and authorities quickly tackle Bob and take him into custody. As Bob bemoans his failed plan, an unharmed Bart is reunited with his parents.
However, all is not well. Just as Bob is being arrested, an air-force operative accidentally drives a tank over the Wright Brothers plane, crushing it to bits - which is perhaps to be expected, as tanks aren't usually driven in the Air Force.
[edit] The Stingy and Battery Show
A fictional show-within-a-show briefly improvised by Krusty the Clown. Determined to stay on air, Krusty broadcast from a small emergency broadcasting system shack in the Springfield alkali flats.
Desperate to fill in time, he invented a substitute for his long-time ratings winner The Itchy & Scratchy Show using a live scorpion and a battery, naming it The Stingy and Battery Show on the spot. He also performed the theme song: "They bite, and light, and bite and light and die, Bite bite bite.... yadda yadda, you know what I'm talkin' about". He then accidentally drops the scorpion and looks worried. He also had two sidekicks: a framed picture of former President Dwight Eisenhower and a fuel can named Professor Gas Can.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode was due to be shown on BBC Two on 14 September 2001, but was replaced with Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield because of the part where Sideshow Bob steals the Wright Brothers plane at the air show, kidnaps Bart, and plans to crash the plane into the shack where Krusty was doing his "show" was considered "in poor taste" due to the September 11 attacks.
- One of the O's in Ocho is an eight-Ball.
- Lisa says particularly out-of-character at the start of the episode, "I want to meet the first female Stealth Bomber pilot. During the Gulf War she destroyed seventy mosques and her name is Lisa too."
[edit] Cultural References
- Double Dare – Spoofed in the opening "Krusty the Clown Show" segment.
- Twilight's Last Gleaming - Title and similar plot.
- Fail-Safe – At the beginning of the third act, we see scenes of everyday life across Springfield. One by one, with a "zooming" sound effect, they all freeze-frame in anticipation of the (supposedly) imminent nuclear blast. Such was the ending of the 1964 Cold War thriller by Sidney Lumet.
- "Daisy" political ad – The montage of scenes mentioned above ends with Maggie picking at a daisy - a parody of the famous political ad for the American presidential candidate Lyndon B. Johnson.
- Wright Brothers – A vintage aircraft, said to be the plane used for the historic flight, is on display at the Springfield Air Show.
- Dr. Strangelove – The underground compound resembles the War Room from the film; also Professor Frink appears as the title character from the film. The tune that Sideshow Bob whistles while preparing the bomb is "We'll Meet Again," as sung by Vera Lynn at the end of the film.
- Tom Baker arrives in character as the Doctor (from Doctor Who), as part as a delegation of esteemed TV Representatives. Other representatives include:
- Raleigh-Durham International Airport – An airport in Raleigh, NC, which is about three hours from where the Wright Brothers' first flight was.
- "High Flight" sonnet quoted by the purportedly American Air Force general, which is actually more affiliated with the Royal Canadian Air Force. It is a similar jab to the British-made Harrier joke.
- Col. Leslie "Hap" Hapablap (voiced by R. Lee Ermey) says, "What is your major malfunction?" to Sideshow Bob, which is a line delivered by Ermey's character in another Stanley Kubrick war movie, Full Metal Jacket.
- Col. Hapablap also exclaims, "What in the World According to Garp?", which is a reference to the famous John Irving novel and film adaptation, "The World According to Garp.
- At the time of this episode, a woman named Awilda Lopez was arrested for killing her adoptive daughter. When she was arrested, Lopez admitted to using her child as a mop to clean the floors of her house, similar to how Krusty the Clown uses Sideshow Mel in the beginning of this episode. Many fans found the joke to be in bad taste due to the timing of the events, but the joke has not been edited out and is included on the season seven DVD set.
- An alien is found in Hangar 18 which could be a reference to the 1980s film or the song by Megadeth
- Kent Brockman ends his farewell speech by announcing that he will be writing a column for PC World magazine.
- The song played during the airplane show is Rock You Like a Hurricane by German Hard Rock band the Scorpions
- Krusty the Clown thinks of a way to stay on the air while the TV station was conducting an Emergency Broadcast System test. Though FCC regulations prohibited the actual EBS tone from airing on that show, the tone heard on this episode is actually used as an Emergency Alert System attention signal on NOAA Weather Radio. When Krusty started airing his show in a civil defense shack, the EBS was activated as if there were an actual emergency.
[edit] Quotes
- Bart (seeing the Wright Brothers plane): Look at that hunk of junk.
Grandpa: Oh, jeeh—you're ignorant! That's the Wright Brothers' plane. At Kitty Hawk in 1903, Charles Lindbergh flew it fifteen miles on a thimble full of corn oil. Single handedly won us the Civil War, it did!
Bart: So how do you know so much about American history?
Grandpa: I piece it together mostly from sugar packets. - Chief Wiggum: Hey, where is Sideshow Bob and that guy who eats people and takes their faces?
Normal-looking prisoner: I'm right here, Chief!
Wiggum: Oh. Then where's Sideshow Bob?
Another prisoner: Uh, he ran off.
Wiggum: Oh, great. Well...if anyone asks, I beat him to death, okay? (Leaves the place) - Col. Leslie "Hap" Hapablap: What a day for an airshow! Not a cloud in the sky!
Sideshow Bob: Except perhaps...a mushroom cloud. (Bob laughs manically as he carries away a 10 Megaton nuclear weapon in a wheelbarrow, but his laugh becomes less manic after the bomb almost falls out) - Sideshow Bob (having appeared on television in order to threaten the town to abolish television): By the way, I am aware of the irony of appearing on television in order to decry it. So don't bother pointing that out.
- Grandpa (in a porta-loo): This elevator only goes to the basement. And someone made an awful mess down there.
- Col. Hapablap: We've searched this base from top to bottom and found nothing but porno, porno, porno!
Mayor Quimby: Well then we have no option, bring in the esteemed representatives of television.
Tom Baker, Steve Urkel, Kent Brockman, Bumblebee Man and Krusty come in.
Krusty: (Upon seeing the porno) Hey hey! This is my kinda meeting! - Bart: (to the squeaky-voiced Security Police Senior Airman) Way to guard the parking lot, Top Gun!
Squeaky-voiced SP: I have three medals for this! - Soldier: (After he runs over the Wright Plane with a tank) Whoah...sorry. We don't normally drive these in the Air Force.
- Sideshow Bob: Well, if it isn't my arch nemesis, Bart Simpson. And his sister Lisa, to whom I'm fairly indifferent.
[edit] External links
